Future To The Past
by Lennoxxxxx
Summary: Through the chaos of the Fourth War, Sai and Sakura are transported back to the past, with one single important mission - Change the past, to save the future. To save Konoha, they are willing to give it all. But exactly, how far can they reach, and what will they uncover through it?
1. I: In The Future

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. (Sobs dramatically with chibi-chic tears) If I did, Itachi wouldn't die and be still alive till now…**

* * *

**Thoughts**

Flashback

Normal

* * *

**Why? Why is all of this happening? Sasuke…**

Tears flowed freely down her face as her emerald eyes were filled with tears once again. The Akatsuki had come for Naruto. Sounds of screams and gasps filled her head as she recalled that the Akatsuki spilled Leaf blood, civilians and shinobi, old and young.

Sakura shook her head violently, trying to clear her head and to convince herself that this was not the reality. She abruptly turned back around to race back to Konoha, to check on Naruto.

**I shouldn't have run. I should have stayed back to help Naruto, instead of listening to him and run. Please. Please just let me be in time…**

Sakura wiped her tears away as she tried to concentrate on running, as fast as she can, back to Konoha. When the village came into view, more like the ruins of what once was the village came into view, she screamed.

* * *

Dead bodies were scattered everywhere, and Sakura recognized quite a few of them on a closer look.

Kakashi was lying on rubble of what used to be of Konoha's Hokage Tower, unmoving.

The Godaime herself, the renowned medic nin, master of brute strength, lay on the shattered ground, chakra depleted.

Ino was lying amongst the rubble, bisected across the waist.

"**Ino-pig you baka… How could you just leave me behind just like this? I still want to be able to argue with you, laugh together with you…How could you just…"**

At this point Sakura broke down into tears; once again, drowning in sorrow for the loss of her most loved ones, of her precious village, the one she had sworn to protect when she became a kunoichi.

* * *

Sensing a flickering chakra coming some four metres northeast from her, broke free from her sorrow, determined to save whoever it was.

"Sai!" Sakura yelled with relief rushing over her when she took a closer look. Sakura wanted to embrace him there and then, even if he usually insulted her practically on a daily basis.

He wasn't injured, surprisingly, just exhausted, luckily not depleted of chakra, considering that he had joined the fight between Naruto and Sasuke.

"Ugly." He managed to choke out when he got up. "Don't talk. You're exhausted."Sakura replied, trying to keep her voice from shaking.

"Where's Naruto?" He asked, ignoring the fact that his voice was nothing more than a croak.

"I'm here." Both turned their heads to notice Naruto, just a metre from them, dragging himself across the rubble, wincing at every cut he took from small sharp edges along the rubble.

"Naruto!" Sakura screamed as she rushed over to Naruto with Sai attempting to stand up to get to Naruto. Naruto was seriously injured, with a chidori to his heart. "Hold on, Naruto, I'll heal you." Sakura said with a shaky voice, not accepting the reality that with or without healing, Naruto would die.

"Sakura, stop. Please stop. We both know that I wouldn't make it." Naruto whispered, coughing up blood. "But, there is a time travel jutsu *cough* … that I know. It *cough* will take you and Sai back to the past. *cough**cough*."Naruto managed a weak grin and added, "Believe it."

Sakura and Sai nodded their heads, realizing that the jutsu was the one and only way to change the future and save Naruto and the whole of Konoha.

"Sayonara… Sakura-chan, Sai…" Naruto whispered as he performed the hand signs for the jutsu and shut his eyes, tears trickling down his fox-like face.

"Sayonara… Naruto" Sakura whispered tears rolling down her face whist she held on to Sai's hand, said person letting tears flow down silently.

Darkness fell upon them till they made it to the past, the past of Konoha.

* * *

**How is it then? I got my inspiration from my beloved sis****ter, who always voiced out openly that if she could go back to the past, she would worked harder for her Finals.**

**Naruto: Not bad, dattebayo! Believe it!**

**Sasuke: Hn. At least dobe didn't become a hindrance here.**

**Naruto: Teme! It's better than being a bad guy…**

**Sai: For once Dickless is right, Uchiha.**

**Naruto: You bet! Wait. What did you call me?**

**Sasuke: (glares at Sai and Naruto) Hn.**

**Sakura: Both of you (Sasuke and Naruto) stop being so childish. Shannaro! (Punches the ground)**

**Sai: I suggest that both of you don't infuriate Hag anymore or …**

**Sakura: Continue that and I'll make YOU dickless! (Holds up fist) Shannaro!**

**Sai: …she'll become uglier than she is now.**

**Sakura: SHANNARO! YOU'RE SO DEAD!**

**Sasuke and Naruto: Quickly end the chapter! I can't hold her back anymore!**

**Sai: Please read and review or Hag will become even uglier.**

**Sakura: What did you say you…!**

**Sai: Till next chapter! (Teleports himself home)**


	2. II: Training Ground Three

**Disclaimer: All characters in this story belong to Masashi Kishimoto rightfully.**

* * *

**Okay. Finally I got this chapter out. I had a hard time deciding the storyline and redid the whole chapter twice. So… Please read and review! Pretty pretty please?**

**Sakura: When I find that emotionless freak, I'll punch his ass to Suna to eat sand! I'll smash his face in! I'll wipe that stupid fake smile off his face! **

**Sai: (Somewhere in Konoha) Achoo! I wonder who is saying something about me now. Must be Hag, cursing away with her ugliness polluting the village…**

**Sakura: THERE YOU ARE! (Cracks knuckles) Don't you dare move! Shannaro! **

**Take this! (Throws a punch towards Sai)**

**Sai: (Mildly dodges to the side and fake smiles) your ugliness has made me dodge you in time to not get a close up view of you.**

**Sakura: What did you say! SHANNARO!**

**Sai: I will start this chapter to save you from Ugly's ugliness. (Disappears in a whirl of ink)**

**Sakura: (Extremely mad) Shannaro! (Swings her fist around and punches Naruto in the face)**

**Naruto: Itai… What did I do, Sakura-Chan!**

* * *

Chapter 2:

**Thoughts**

Flashback

Normal

* * *

" Kyaaaaaaaahhh!" Sakura yelled, before landing on someone soft instead of the hard ground. "Ugly, please get off me. In case you haven't noticed, you're heavier than Naruto. And even though I know I am irresistible, enough is enough." Sai commented from underneath her.

"Why you…!" Sakura trailed off as she took more notice of her surroundings. "Sai, we're…we're in Training Ground Three…" Sakura said, her voice almost reduced to a whisper, as compared to a few moments ago.

**Training Ground Three. The place where she used to train with her team. With Kakashi, Naruto and _him. _Uchiha Sasuke. The very same place where she would train with Sai and Captain Yamato 2 years after Sasuke left.**

~Flashback~

"Let me go!" Naruto yelled as he squirmed around, trying to free himself. She and Sasuke were sitting on the ground beside Naruto. Naruto had been tied to the pole as he had tried to steal the lunch boxes when he thought Kakashi-sensei wasn't looking.

"Neither of you are to give him your lunch or else… the consequences will be dire." Kakashi-sensei warned, before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Naruto's stomach growled as he looked at both Sakura and Sasuke eating lunch while he couldn't. She had felt pity for him and held her bento and chopsticks and offered to feed him. "I'm not hungry anyway." Sakura remembered saying that, while Sasuke just held out his bento to Naruto without looking back at the so-called "loser".

"We're a team, we need to work together, but we can't work together properly if you're too hungry to focus right?" She had said.

At this moment, Kakashi-sensei had suddenly appeared. "I thought I told you not to give him any food." Kakashi-sensei stated. The three of them had been to terrified to do anything. "Any last words?" Kakashi-sensei asked.

Sakura remembered that she had stuttered "But… But we're a team! If Naruto is hungry, we won't be able to work together at all!" "You…" Kakashi started out on an angry tone "pass!" Kakashi yelled, with a visible grin under his mask.

"We passed?" Three voices echoed out. "This test was a test on your teamwork, that's why you've been put into three-man cells" Kakashi stated.

After which, Kakashi had dismissed them, with Naruto yelling after them to untie the ropes and release him as they had forgotten all about him.

~Flashback End~

"Sai, we're…we're twelve again." Sakura stuttered out, trying to keep her voice from shaking with sorrow after being immersed in her own world. "I'm thirteen." Sai replied skeptically. Sakura looked up at Sai, who still towered around a good five inches taller than her, who at age twelve was only 148.5cm tall while Sai was 161.2cm.

Sai was still wearing his ANBU uniform, and his face was a little chubbier than when he was older. Sakura took notice that even though he was thirteen and shorter, he was still as handsome as ever, even though he had the additional bonus of being cute already, due to his a little chubbier cheek.

**He's still as hot as ever... And he's soooo cute now! Her inner drooled. **

**Wait. Hot? And cute? No way!**

**Aw…Come on, just admit he's hot. Or that he's cute!**

**Whatever you say, inner. **Sakura thought inwardly, too tired to argue with her inner again.

"You look uglier when you're twelve," Sai commented, as Sakura raised her fist to punch him, "But you look better when you're sixteen." Sai quickly added in, upon sensing a murderous aura around Sakura.

"Even though you're still ugly when you're older." Sai added on, when the murderous aura around his pink-haired teammate disappeared.

This time, however, he could not escape the wrath of Sakura who had apparently recovered enough from her sorrow. Sakura punched him with one of her chakra-infused punches and Sai flew back and broke through at least three trees before landing on the ground with a resounding thud.

"Well, I'm glad to know that our skills haven't change back to when we were twelve." Sakura commented mildly to Sai who was currently walking over to her, a hand on his bruised cheek.

"I hope that you'll do this to that traitor when you see him," Sai grumbled, rubbing his aching cheek, not noticing that Sakura had a pained look on her face.

Once again, Sakura was lost in the thoughts of what had happened within this one day and tears dripped down her smooth, fair face. "Sakura, you have to be strong, that's how we are going to change the future." Sai said in a soft voice, barely visible emotions flickering in his usually emotionless ink-black eyes.

Sakura caught a glimpse of this seemingly invisible notion, and wondered what he would turn out to be today, had he not underwent the ruthless training of Root.

**What would he have been like? Would he be like Hinata, shy and soft-spoken? Or would he be like Naruto, a hyperactive goon and an infamous prankster? **Sakura smiled to herself at this thought, that he might be goofy.

"Let's go find the Hokage." Sakura said with sudden determination in her voice, as she made up her mind not to wallow in sorrow anymore and to be strong enough to save the village she loved, the people she cherished.

Sai smiled, a genuine smile, as he looked at her leaving back, thinking of how determined she could be when she made up her mind to be, momentarily lost in his world of thoughts.

He felt a trickle of emotions in his heart, even though he could not put a name to this foreign feeling. Yet, we all know that this is a feeling of friendship and warmth it brings.

Realizing that he had been left behind in his own thoughts, Sai quickly ran to catch up with Sakura whist she yelled at him for being too slow.

* * *

**Okay, this chapter is not very good but I promise that the next one will be better than this one. Well, I guess... Anyways, please read and review so I can improve! :D **

**Naruto: Sai you bastard, I swear that I'll kill you when I find you…**

**Sai: That is if you can catch me, dickless.**

**Naruto: What did you call me you bastard! Stay right there! (Runs toward Sai)**

**Sai: You'll have to do better if you want to strangle me, dickless (Dodging the bulldozer that Naruto was at this moment)**

**Naruto: Why you…! (Trails off as Sakura suddenly appears and tried to smash their heads together)**

**Sai: You are still as slow as ever, Hag. Is your ugliness slowing you down?**

**Sakura: You…You're going to eat my fists! Shannaro! **

**Sasuke: Annoying…**

**Sakura: You too! Shannaro! (To Sasuke)**

**Sai and Sasuke (while escaping): Is she human or what?**

**Sakura: SHANNARO! (Smashing both of their heads together when she caught up to them)**

**Sai and Sasuke: Itai... (Seating dazed on the ground) We're innocent! (Pouting and sulking)**

**Sakura: Don't bother with them. Please read and review! (Insert smile here)**


	3. III: The Hokage & Team Seven

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and its characters. They belong rightfully to Masashi Kishimoto.**

**Naruto: Finally the next chapter! I thought that you (the author) were dead, dattebayo!**

**Sasuke: Hn. It's only been a week and a day.**

**Sai: You'll be dead before the author is, dickless, if you continue on saying things like that.**

**Author: (Outside of the studio watching them, nodding head in approval)**

**Naruto: What did you call me again you…!**

**Sasuke: …**

**Sai: That is merely a fact, dickless.**

**Naruto: Call me that again and…**

**Sai: Dickless wonder.**

**Naruto: (Absolutely fuming now) Argh! Stay there you bastard! (Chases after Sai who was "fleeing")**

**Sasuke: (Ignoring background noise made by Naruto) Please read and review. *mutters under about idiots under his breath***

* * *

Chapter 3:

**Thoughts**

Flashback

Normal

* * *

Sai and Sakura walked along the streets to the Hokage Tower silently. That is until… "Have you wondered that why we landed in Training Ground three of all places?" Sakura asked Sai. "Hag, has your ugliness polluted your mind too much? Naruto mentioned it before that if he performed the jutsu, if you think about a particular place the most, you will land there when the jutsu is completed." Sai replied monotonously.

Sakura resisted the temptation to pound his face into the ground now, as they were in the middle of a busy street, and also, it would not be very beneficial to hurt her teammate like she did just now, as he was now her only pillar of support. However, in inside of Sakura's head, this was happening:

**Grrr… I want to smash his adorable face!**

**Adorable?! Since when was he adorable?! **Sakura mentally conveyed to her inner.

**Hm... Since he became younger? **

**Whatever. **Sakura mentally eye rolled, and shut off her inner.

Sakura had learnt to control her inner from when she was fourteen, however, it would still pop out from time to time when she least needed her inner. But now when she is back to being twelve, it popped out nearly all the time. Thankfully, she could still get it under control.

* * *

Silence resumed as both Sakura and Sai continued on their way to see the Sandaime Hokage. They were both pondering on how to make the Sandaime believe them, and how to get into the Hokage Tower without being stopped by the guards.

The two guards had almost burst out of laughter when they heard that the two newly graduated "genins" in front of them had requested for an audience with the Sandaime. They tried to get them to scram from there, but were immediately frozen with terror of the sight of the smile that the boy had given them. For some odd reason of their own, the looked at each other and instantly saw the fear in each others' eyes.

It was the smile that the boy had given them. It was just so emotionless, just so blank.

Each swallowing a gulp, the guards relented and let the both of them enter. One thing was for sure. The boy was no ordinary boy.

The Sandaime took a puff of his pipe and looked up from the mission reports when a knock was heard.

**Not again. **The Sandaime groaned inwardly, hoping that it was anymore complaints on why Naruto was able to graduate since he did not pass the test, again.

"Come on in." The Sandaime said, and was very much in for a surprise when two kids entered. The girl was Haruno Sakura, a newly graduated genin, who was also classified as Uchiha Sasuke's biggest fan girl.

**Also a soon to be Team Seven member, along with Sasuke. I wonder how Kakashi will handle her. **The Sandaime chuckled inwardly.

The gaze of the Sandaime soon drifted to the person who entered behind her, who was the boy.

**What is Danzo's subordinate doing here, with a genin? **

Regardless, the Sandaime asked kindly, "How may I help the both of you?"

Sakura replied politely, "Hokage-sama, I am afraid that you may not believe me, however, I still have to inform you." Taking a deep breath, Sakura quickly relayed the events in the future to the Hokage.

The Sandaime frowned after Sakura mentioned that Sasuke had left the village to join Orochimaru, and ended Orochimaru's life and Itachi's life successfully, and brought about the destruction of Konoha soon after.

Sarutobi Hiruzen took another puff of his pipe and thought deeply, before answering Sakura. "Well, Sakura, I'm afraid that I will have to confirm you and your friend's ranks and age before I can tell you my decision."

"Very well, Hokage-sama. I am Haruno Sakura, rank Jonin, age seventeen" Sakura replied quickly.

"And I am Sai, rank ANBU, and age eighteen."

The Hokage pondered for a few moments before speaking in an even tone, "Sakura, you will keep an eye on Uchiha Sasuke under the guise of a genin. I will try my best to provide you with any form of assistance. You may go now."

"Thank you very much, Hokage-sama. I shall take my leave now." Sakura replied, while taking a glance at Sai before leaving the room.

"As for you, let's see what we can do…" The Sandaime drifted off while pondering. A few moments later, an idea had indeed formulated itself in his head, and he conveyed his orders to Sai.

**Guess I'm still not too old yet…** The Sandaime thought inwardly, while thinking of a certain sadistic purple hair woman.

"But Hokage-sama, what about Danzo-sama…" Sai trailed off, uncertain of the Sandaime's response.

"I will deal with him later. Right now you can just concentrate on the mission." The Sandaime said in a grave tone, which left no arguments.

"Understood, Hokage-sama." Sai replied in a monotone voice.

"You may be dismissed now." The Sandaime said, heaving a sigh of relief when Sai left the room, as he could now continue reading the mission reports.

Meanwhile, Sakura had raided through the bright red, ugly dresses that took up majority of her wardrobe and managed to find a green sleeveless top, much like the one she wore when she was fifteen, a pair of black ninja pants and a white skirt, which she quickly cut it to become like the grey one she wore when she was fifteen.

**Guess I have to go shopping later.** Sakura made a mental note to herself.

**What on earth possessed me to buy these dresses? **Sakura shuddered, thinking of her twelve-year-old self.

Sakura stood before the mirror, tied on her forehead protector, and glanced at her own reflection in the mirror for a moment, realizing that she had back-length hair once again.

"Sakura, shouldn't you be leaving now?" Sakura's mother, Haruno Chiharu inquired (yelled) through the bedroom door. "I am going now okaa-san!" Sakura replied, with much relief at her mother's voice, while exiting the house.

**I wonder where Sai is now. How am supposed to find him when he doesn't tell me where he is?**

At this very moment, Sakura walked past the Yamanaka flower shop where Ino was exiting. Ino gave her a look and said in a sneering tone, "Good morning, Sakura."

Sakura bit her lower lip, in an attempt to keep herself from running forward and hugging the girl. She felt very guilty for being unable to save Ino, her best friend, when she could have.

After Sasuke left Konoha, Ino and Sakura had both trained under Tsunade together. Sakura had encouraged Ino when she was trying unsuccessfully to heal a fish that was given to her by Tsunade, who said that if Ino was able to heal the fish, she would in turn train Ino. The two had then grown back closer and once again became friends that were inseparable, like Sasuke and Naruto used to be.

Sakura sighed, "Ino, look. I have to tell you something."

Ino responded by saying, "What? Proclaiming your undying love for Sasuke-kun?"

"No, it's just that…I want to tell you that I have gotten over Sasuke already, and I want us to be friends again." Sakura said in a rush, unsure of how Ino was going to act.

"You…want to be…friends again?" Ino asked, with doubt in her voice.

"Yes. Look, it's just that I realized that I lost a good friend through all this stupid Sasuke-rivalry which is not going to get us anywhere. I'm tired of all this fighting and…I just want my best friend back." Sakura gushed out, fearful of Ino's response.

"Well…okay." Ino said, before giving Sakura a bone-crushing hug. "Welcome back to being my friend Sakura!" Ino yelled. "Ow…" Sakura muttered under her breath, before the blonde released her iron grip on Sakura.

"Let's go before we're late!" Ino yelled in Sakura's ear, taking hold of her hand and running to the academy.

**Ah…The good old times.**

**For once, inner, I agree with you. **Sakura conveyed this thought to her inner, who threw an invisible victorious fist in the air.

* * *

The two arrived at the academy minutes later, smiling and laughing. Both stepped into the classroom just in time to catch many fan girls crowding around the desk where Sasuke was sitting at. Ino swooned at the sight of Sasuke and joined the crazy fan girls who were arguing who should sit by Sasuke.

Naruto, at this moment, was very mad that he was just flung aside by the many fan girls and that Sasuke was the center of attention, got up and clambered onto the table, squatting in front of Sasuke.

The two then proceeded to have a glaring match, with the fan girls yelling at Naruto to stop staring at Sasuke.

**Everyone is so obsessed with Sasuke…What's so good about him anyway? **Naruto thought to himself.

Electricity crackled in the air as the two boys continued glaring at each other, the fan girls yelling at Sasuke to beat up Naruto in the background.

Sakura bit her lip in an attempt to control her laughter, as she knew what was going to happen next. Back then, she had been furious at Naruto and heartbroken, as she was not Sasuke's first kiss.

The boy sitting in the desk below Sasuke leaned back, and his arm bumped into Naruto, who lost balance and fell front, causing both Naruto and Sasuke their first kiss to each other.

Sakura immediately burst out into a fit of laughter, unable to contain herself. Naruto and Sasuke immediately dislodged themselves from each other's lips and were turning away to the side, holding their necks and coughing, in an attempt to take the taste of each other's lips away.

"I sense danger." Naruto said to himself, before turning around with a feeling of pure fear towards Sasuke's fan girls who were cracking their knuckles, ready to beat up Naruto.

Sakura, who by then had recovered enough from her fit of laughter, walked hurriedly over and put out her arm, blocking the fan girls' way to Naruto. "Stop, it's not Naruto's fault. It was just an accident." Sakura said, with a superior air.

"Sakura-chan…" Naruto said with hopeful puppy dog eyes. The fan girls, excluding Ino, who had listened to Sakura's logic, looked as though they were not going to relent. Fortunately, Iruka-sensei walked in at this moment, and ordered everyone back to their seats.

Sakura took a seat beside Naruto, who was seating beside Sasuke. "Sakura-chan, I just want to say thank you for saving me from those fan girls." Naruto said in a whisper.

"No need to thank me, it was no trouble." Sakura hurriedly whispered back, as Iruka-sensei's eyes looked in her direction.

"Starting today, you are all official shinobis, however, you're all still genin. It's going to get much harder from here. You'll all be put into a team of three, led by a jounin." Iruka –sensei finished, accompanied with murmurs from the newly graduated genins.

**A team of three…that's only going to be a burden to me. **Sasuke thought to himself with a frown.

**First would be Sakura-chan and second…I can live with anyone just as long as it's not Sasuke. **Naruto thought to himself.

"Okay, now I am going to announce your teams." Iruka-sensei said, Sasuke's fan girls listening attentively, hoping for a chance to be in the same team as Sasuke.

"Team one will be…" Sakura stopped listening, and instead looked out of the window with a bored expression, as she already knew she was in Team Seven.

**That lucky bastard Sai, he doesn't need to be put into a genin team!** Inner Sakura protested loudly. Sakura agreed mentally with her inner.

**Where the hell is he, anyway? I'm going to punch his ass when I find him! Wait… murdering my teammate for this mission isn't a good idea…**

Just then, another shinobi suddenly appeared with a puff of smoke next to Iruka-sensei, who was taken aback by the sudden appearance of his fellow comrade. A few words were exchanged between the two in murmurs before the shinobi teleported himself once again.

Iruka-sensei cleared his throat before continuing. "Next up is Team Seven. Team Seven will be a four-man team, with orders from the Hokage."

Sakura perked up her ears at this moment, and stared at Iruka-sensei, with a worrying thought in her head.

**I hope we didn't mess with the time stream too much…It's already been very messed up…**

"Team Seven will consist of Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, and…" Iruka-sensei was cut off at this moment by Naruto, who exclaimed loudly, "Why do a great shinobi like me have to pair up with him!" and pointed to Sasuke.

A vein popped up on Iruka-sensei's forehead as he struggled to keep his temper in check. "Because, Naruto, Sasuke was the top of the graduating class and you were the dead-last. It's to balance the abilities of the team." Iruka-sensei said in a tone that allowed no arguement, anger underlying every word.

"Hn. Idiot." Sasuke said murmured under his breath. However, Naruto still could hear him, and yelled in his ear immediately, "What was that you said teme?"

"Dobe." Sasuke said in an even tone.

"Why you…!"

A vein twitched in Sakura's forehead, as the two boys kept arguing. Sakura was now very, very angry. "Both of you shut the hell up and let Iruka-sensei finish!" Sakura yelled at the two boys, giving them each a punch (without chakra) on their heads.

The whole class was stunned into silence at that moment. After all, Sakura was classified as Sasuke's biggest fan girl and would never ever dream of yelling at Sasuke, right? Naruto they could understand, but Sasuke…?

"Thank…Thank you, Sakura." Iruka-sensei stuttered out, taken aback by Sakura's sudden outburst. Then, he regained his composure and started off again. "The final member…" Iruka-sensei was cut off once again, much to Sakura's annoyance, by a knock at the door.

"Come in!" Iruka-sensei called out with a slightly irritated voice.

The door swung open, and the person who walked in next surprised Sakura so much that her jaw almost dropped open.

It was Sai.

* * *

**Heheh…a cliffhanger. I'm so evil…Muhahahahah! However, the next chapter will be up next week, so no worries! **

**Naruto: (sweatdropping) did the author go mad? The laughter…sounds so…evil…**

**Sasuke: Not as evil as mine! Muhahahahaha…haha!**

**Itachi: (Suddenly appears) Foolish little brother…You can never be as evil as me!**

**Sai: Are all Uchihas this crazy?**

**Naruto: (shivering) Please don't tell me they are…**

**Sasuke: Itachi…The time, has finally come for my revenge…Let's concluded this once and for all…with a game of hide and seek! (Squeals)**

**Itachi: Who will be the seeker?**

**Sai: It has just been concluded that all Uchihas are crazy, and Ugly is driven crazy by them. (Many noises in the background from two Uchihas)**

**Naruto: To save us from this predicament,**

**Sai: please read and review…**


	4. IV: Survival Test with Kakashi!

**Reply To Reviews:**

* * *

**sosue16: Oh, you can see now in this chappie ^O^**

**khybrd90: Thank you for the review~! **

**Saisakuforeva: Me too, me too! My main reason for writing this story, btw (:**

**3HaH3: Awww, its okay, your English will be better with more practice, and thanks for the review! ^0^**

* * *

**Disclaimer: I do not own any Naruto characters in this story**

* * *

**Naruto: (Tears welling up in eyes) First it's Sakura-chan….No****w even the author hates me….**

**Author: Aww… Naruto….I don't hate you…**

**Sasuke: Dobe.**

**Naruto: Teme!**

**Sasuke: Dobe**

**Naruto: Teme!**

**Sakura: Shut the hell up! #$%*%(^&)*#**

**Sasuke: (Sighs) Looks like it's time to run again…**

**Lee: (Another random appearance) Yosh! Our youthful blossom wants us to use our youthful energy to become more youthful! Gai-sensei! **

**Gai: Lee!**

**Lee: Gai-sensei!**

**A sunset background appears as the teacher and student shared a youthful hug….**

**Naruto: Perhaps we….**

**Sakura: should…**

**Sasuke: (In a monotone) go…**

**The three zooms off, leaving the two green spandex clad people in the beautiful sunset…. **

**Okay, that was… kind of extra….**

**So…let's start the chapter now!**

* * *

Chapter Five

Normal

"Talking"

**Thoughts/Inner**

* * *

Sakura gave some glares occasionally, to a certain pale skinned, Sasuke lookalike artist, who was holding his cheek which was already swelling, across the room.

It had been fifteen minutes since Sai had returned to the apartment with a nonchalant look on his face, as if not bothering about the fact that Sakura had just punched him into the ground from his apartment on the third floor.

The truth was, Sakura's punches had hurt like hell, but he did not bother to even complain, or rather, could not complain, since he didn't really understand the concept of being annoyed at a person, unlike a certain loud-mouthed, hyperactive knuckle head blonde ninja.

After all, he had gone through Root's ruthless training, hadn't he?

A minute passed and Sakura sighed to herself, and decided to take a look at Sai's check, in case she fractured anything, no matter how she was tempted to leave it be. She was a medic, wasn't she?

**Besides, shishou would chide me for this if she was here and if I don't check in case I fracture something…** Sakura thought of what her shishou, the Fifth Hokage, Tsunade Senju would have said to what she had just done.

**In case we fractured something in his pretty boy face….** Sakura's inner drooled.

**Yeah, in case we fractured something in his prett- What? Pretty boy face? You must be kidding me…. **Sakura glared at her inner, before completely shutting her off.

After said action in her head, Sakura stood up from where she had sat, and deliberately took her own sweet time in walking over to the other side of the room, where Sai was sitting, his back faced to her.

Sakura focused her chakra to her right hand, and in a matter of a few seconds, the familiar green chakra appeared around her hand, to which she gently pressed to Sai's cheek, which was already an angry red.

Sai, on the other hand, was so immersed in his own thoughts that he had not even realized that Sakura was beside him, jumped as soon as he felt a warm touch on his cheek which was swelling.

Sai drew out his tanto, and had almost slashed at the assailant, or so he thought, before stopping himself in time as he recognized the familiar chakra signature that belonged to Sakura.

His tanto had stopped dangerously close to Sakura's face, resulting in cutting off a few strands of her pink hair.

Sai quickly withdrew his tanto, and slid it back into its sheath.

"I'm sorry, but I was distracted." Sai spoke with that familiar, and annoying fake smile plastered onto his face, which made it even more tempting for Sakura to punch him again. Goodness**, **did she hate that annoying, empty fake smile that he almost always had plastered on his face no matter what happened.

**Distracted? By what? Might that just be…? **Her inner trailed off as she rubbed her hands gleefully, with a mischievous look on her face.

**No. Never. Ever. **Sakura mentally gave her inner a death glare that might have even melted Sasuke, if that was even virtually possible, into the ground.

Truth was that, Sai was really distracted. He was distracted ever since he had forcefully taken Sakura to his old apartment, without her permission.

Sai himself did not understand what had possessed his mind to do that thing.

Besides, when he entered the apartment, he had this feeling that all of a sudden overwhelmed him, this feeling that he had identified sometime after pondering over it, thanks to one of his many books borrowed from the Konoha Library that taught him about feelings, a feeling called a sense of longing.

He had felt this same feeling many years ago, when his brother, Shin had died.

Back then, he did not understand this particular feeling, to which he could not even have the time to even ponder about it, since his Root schedule was so packed with training timings and missions away from Konoha.

* * *

After that small little incident where Sakura had punched him yet again, for the second time of the day, he had been pondering over why he brought Sakura here to his apartment.

It was then that Sakura had snuck up on him- no, rather, he had not even paid attention to his surroundings since he was so deep in thought.

And now, she was so close to him, as she was healing his cheek and reducing the swelling and the pain, he could smell her, her scent was just exactly as her name was. She had the scent of sakura blossoms.

He could see her viridian orbs focusing on his cheek, and he could feel her breath on the side of his head, and his cheek heating up a little.

**Well, well, well…Smells like a young love is about to blossom in the air….**

**No, it's not possible. I have no emotions. Who are you and why are you doing in my head? **Sai thought mentally.

**I am your inner, created by you, yourself.**

**Inner? I read about that before in a book. It says that when a person has too much emotions running in his or her head, an inner would be created, in other words, a split personality in one's head. But that is not possible for me. I have no emotions.**

**FOOL. I was created BECAUSE you HAVE emotions. **

**I have…I have emotions?**

**Of course you do! I just explained that I was created BECAUSE YOU HAVE EMOTIONS! **Sai's inner was banging his head against a figurative brick wall that had appeared out of nowhere after said sentence above was finished, in exasperation of Sai's lack of understanding.

After which, Sai's inner disappeared by himself, probably off to meditate and calm down.

"SAI!" Sai recognized Sakura's screeching of her higher pitched voice, since was back to being twelve and so was her voice.

"Yes, ugly?" Sai questioned, totally oblivious to what Sakura had said before him even knowing that Sakura had called him.

"Were you even listening to me?" Sakura sighed in exasperation, before continuing. "I was just saying that, for tomorrow's test, it's a bell test on teamwork. Kakashi-sensei will be three hours late, so we can just go to the bridge at nine o'clock to meet the others. And also-" Sakura was cut off by Sai, who finished her sentence for her.

"And also, that I have to eat, since it's a survival exercise, and if I don't eat, I wouldn't have the energy to complete the test, right, ugly?"

Sakura sighed, not bothering to punch him, seeing that she had just healed him a minute ago and punching him once again would be a waste of time and her chakra, before answering his question, which was more of a statement actually.

"Yes, you would have known that. And also, I'm leaving now to get home for lunch before my okaasan berates me for being late." Sakura stood up, getting ready to leave before she suddenly remembered that Sai lived alone and probably would have to have lunch by himself.

"Would you like to have lunch at my house? I'm sure that my okaasan wouldn't mind." Sakura asked Sai.

"No thanks, ugly, eating with you and seeing your ugly face would probably make my appetite go away." Sai responded.

To which, Sakura punched him yet again, before stomping off and leaving his apartment, without even a goodbye, seeing that she was once again, angry with him.

**Stupid Sai! So much for my kindness…** Sakura left with this thought on her mind, forgetting all about Shin's diary in her ninja pouch.

* * *

-Time Skip-

* * *

Sai woke up at six fifteen the following morning, giving him ample time to shower and prepare himself.

After showering and having his breakfast, an onigiri and a cup of green tea, Sai found out that it was only twenty minutes to seven, leaving him with more than an hour to kill before going to the bridge to meet Team Seven and Kakashi-sempai **(1)**.

Spying his painting tools that was on the small side table beside one of his canvas paintings that was leaned against the wall, him having found no space to hang them up, he settled himself on a stool with his painting tools, and started to paint.

What he had painted was an array of colors, to which a person who does not understand art, would just see a painting of splatters of paint of different colors, without even knowing the true meaning of it.

Sai had just finished putting away his painting tools, when he heard a knocking of glass, and sensed a very, very familiar chakra.

"What is it, Ugly?" Sai said out loud, while making his way over to the window, not bothering to open it, since he knew that Sakura could very well hear him.

"Just open the damned window, you idiot!" Sakura yelled at him through the glass of the window, and raised a fist to signify what she would do if he did not do so.

Sai opened the window, and let Sakura in before she could carry out her smashing of his window, which he considered the price of, probably a mission or two's money.

Sakura started to climb through the window, but before she got in, her foot caught against something that seemed to be made of metal, which was unlikely, the window ledge.

She lost her balance and fell onto Sai, causing them both to land on the floor with a thud. The unidentified object slid across the floor and stopped a mere meter away from the two of them.

Sakura immediately recognized the object as a tanto, and got up instantly, stepping on Sai in the process.

She drew the tanto, which had obviously not been used for quite some years already, since the blade was unpolished.

"That was my brother's, though I do not know how the tanto ended up there." Sai finished with a thoughtful look on his face.

Sakura continued to look at the tanto some more, as she slowly felt more and more of an attachment to it. It was then, that she decided that she needed to learn some new skills, namely, in the areas of kenjutsu, which she had no skill in or whatsoever.

"Sai, I was just wondering if, well, if you could teach me how to use the tanto." Sakura said the whole question out in one breath.

**FOOL! Teach her! It's your one and only chance after this to get close to her!** Sai's inner exclaimed at him.

**To get- get close to her? Why would I do such a thing? **Sai's reply to his inner held a slight disbelief in it.

**Why would you ASK a question like THAT? Fool! It's because YOU like HER.**

**Ugly? Why would I like Ugly of all people?**

**How would I know that? It's for YOU to answer that! I- Forget it, I better go meditate before I rupture a brain vessel….**

Sai's inner disappeared in that second, leaving him confused with many, many questions unanswered.

However, he decided just that once, he would do something for Ugly that would (hopefully) appease her monstrous temper.

"All right, Ugly, take my brother's tanto. But, I have a condition," Sai paused, before continuing, "You, have to teach me, about emotions."

"I'm alright with that, but I have some conditions too. One, return those books you borrowed yesterday to the library immediately after the survival exercise. Two, you are not to ever borrow those kind of books ever again. Is that clear?" Sakura listed out the two conditions.

"Sure, Ugly, but first, you have to polish that tanto before you can even use it." Sakura rolled her eyes at this; Sai was just stating the obvious, yet again.

* * *

-Time Skip-

* * *

"The way you grip the tanto is wrong. Also, your stance is not stable enough." Sai pointed out her mistakes bluntly, while sketching.

How he did that, she did not know, but the one thing Sakura sure knew, was that training under him, is definitely one of the worst things on her list.

Sakura wasn't sure if Sai was getting back at her for all those beatings he received over the past two years through this training, or if it was just purely a coincidence, but this was sure one hell of a training. And she thought that her shishou's trainings were bad enough.

**Golly, Sai can sure be strict- no, harsh's more the word, while training people… **Sakura thought grimly to herself, as she avoided yet another swipe from the ink clone Sai had created to help her train with the tanto.

Sakura swung her tanto back at the clone, which nimbly dodged and landed a distance away from her, giving her a mere few seconds to catch her breath before it attacked again.

This time, it did a quick swipe and Sakura jumped back, just landing when the clone appeared behind her and held its tanto to her neck, its other arm holding onto her waist, making it seemingly impossible to escape.

"You lost." Sai said without even looking up.

Sakura said with a small smirk on her face, "We aren't finished yet, Sai."

Twirling the tanto in her fingers, Sakura stabbed it into the clone's right thigh, making it release its right arm from her waist, allowing her more freedom with her movements, and thus made it easier for her to disarm the clone by grabbing its wrist and doing a quick twist, using its own tanto to stab its heart.

The clone splattered into a puddle of ink onto the ground, just as Sai looked up, at Sakura who was now giving him a grin.

"Well, Hag, it looks like you at the very least can use the tanto, although I hope that it doesn't rust from your ugliness, however, you still need quite some polishing up on your skills, in which, means more trainings." Sai put away his sketching in his small backpack, and stood up.

**Grrr… he just had to insult me…** Sakura fumed inside her mind, while on the exterior, she maintained her cool, not wanting to send her teammate to the hospital, and right before the teamwork test took place.

"I think we should go and meet the others at the bridge now, it's only fifteen minutes before Kakashi-sensei turns up." Sakura chose to say instead, and walked off, with Sai beside her.

* * *

At The Bridge…

* * *

"Dobe."

"Teme!"

"Dobe."

"Call me that and I'll…!"

"You'll what, dead-last?"

"I'll… Sakura-chan!" Naruto initially continued on, before noticing Sakura making her way to the bridge with Sai, and running dramatically over to said person.

"Sa-Sakura-chan? What happened to your hair?" Naruto inquired with a curiosity equivalent to that of a young child.

"Naruto, I- " Sakura was cut off by another male before she could form her reply to Naruto.

"Dickless, obviously Hag cut off her hair, even though that doesn't lessen her ugliness." Sai's fake smile was in place once again, even though she had reprimanded- punched him countless times for it.

"What did you call me, Sai-teme!" Naruto was easily provoked by Sai's nickname for him.

"Dobe, how did you graduate with that hearing of yours." Sasuke had intervened at this point, making the question sound more like a statement.

"Sasuke-teme! What did you say you?" Naruto got even more agitated now, with the added insult from the stoic Uchiha.

**Oh god, not again…** Sakura groaned in frustration.

Electricity crackled in the air as the two infamous rivals held a mini glaring match of their own.

However, before blood would be shed, figuratively, Sakura pushed both boys' heads towards each other, making their foreheads make contact, in a not-so-lightly way.

"Itai…" Naruto grumbled at the pain on his forehead.

**When did she- When did she do that? Her speed… **Sasuke pondered

"Serves you right." Sakura said with a huff, lifting up a basket and placing it on the railing of the bridge.

"Eh? What's that, Sakura-chan?"

"Naruto, that's a basket, with food inside it. Ramen for you and tomatoes for Sasuke IF he says 'please'" Sakura emphasized on the 'if'.

"B-But Kakashi-sensei told us not to eat anything before the survival exercise!" Naruto blurted.

"Baka! If you don't eat food, how would you have the energy for the survival exercise! He's obviously trying to fool us." Sakura snapped.

**Why didn't I think of that earlier? I should have known! **A certain Uchiha thought with a frown etched on his face

Grumbling to himself, he forced out a sound that Sakura barely recognized as a gruff 'please'.

"What was that, Sasuke? I couldn't hear you?" Sakura put on a sweet voice that was layered with honey.

"Please." Sasuke bit out more forcefully this time round, unable to resist the temptation of tomatoes.

"Now isn't that much better?" Sakura said purposefully, successfully provoking the Uchiha.

**He must not have had to say please a lot… with his family…** Sakura guessed.

Naruto and Sasuke were just finishing their food when a certain silver haired jounin finally decided to appear.

"Yo! Good morning!" Kakashi-sensei raised one of his hands up, as a form of casual greeting.

"You're late!" Naruto exclaimed immediately.

"Well, a black cat crossed my path…" Kakashi-sensei trailed off as he caught sight of the food. "I remember telling you not to have food." Kakashi-sensei finished with a questioning tone in his voice.

"Well, since this is a survival test, Kakashi-sensei, where would we have the energy to complete it if we don't eat?" Sakura questioned.

**I knew she was smart… There goes my plan of luring them with food…** Kakashi frowned briefly beneath his mask.

* * *

-Time Skip-

* * *

"Sakura-chan! Thank you so much!" Naruto said in an earnest voice to Sakura.

"Next time don't fall for obvious traps, Naruto." Sakura said in a kindly voice.

"Dickless, it seems that you brain is lacking like your penis." Sai cut in.

"Why-!" Sakura clamped her hand over Naruto's mouth before he could make any more noises and escaped from the vicinity.

"Naruto, try not to make loud noises and let Kakashi-sensei find you. We need to work together for this teamwork test." Sakura explained to an angry Naruto who was shaking his fist at an unaffected Sai.

**Sai… you're in for it later…** Sakura mentally cracked her knuckles.

"Let's go and find Sasuke now." Sakura, having had a vague idea of where Sasuke might be, got off the ground and signaled to the boys that the coast was clear, before moving off.

When Sakura got a sight of Sasuke trapped into the ground with only his head visible, she could not control her laughter and practically dropped onto the ground laughing.

"Teme! This is priceless!" Naruto started to laugh his head off, while Sai just stood at the side, a ghost of a faint smile on his face.

A very annoyed Sasuke scowled at them and at himself inwardly for being so clumsy. He had tried to get one of the bells from Kakashi unsuccessfully by himself, only managing to miss the bells by a mere inch or so and had ended up being pulled into the ground by Kakashi instead.

After having their fair share of wild laughter, Sakura finally decided to save Sasuke from his predictment, and inserted a little chakra into her hand, aiming a fist at the ground near Sasuke, being careful not to get too close for fear of hurting him.

Having made a crack in the ground, Sakura took Sasuke's arm by force, and pulled him out.

"Sasuke, this is a teamwork test. We need to work together to pass this test." Sakura explained, readying herself for a protest.

"No." Sasuke simply replied. "I can get the bells by myself." He added.

Sakura's patience, which was basically non-existence, started to wear out quickly. She quickly scanned the area for any sign of Kakashi-sensei's chakra signature, and found out that he was not in the vicinity.

"UCHIHA DAMN IT! This is a teamwork test and if you want to even pass it, you have to cooperate with us!" Sakura yelled in Sasuke's face, which held a look of surprise.

"A teamwork test?" Sasuke enquired.

"Isn't it obvious? That's the reason for only having two bells, because we need to work together to get them." Sakura tried to say as calmly as possible.

Sasuke nodded his head slowly, which was a sign that he was willing to cooperate with them.

Sakura let out a sigh of relief, and the four put their heads together, slowly conjuring up a plan to steal the bells from Kakashi-sensei.

* * *

-Time Skip-

* * *

**Something is definitely wrong….. I wonder what they're up to. **

Kakashi was puzzled, as he wasn't attacked by any of his possible students just yet.

As if on cue, Kakashi felt Sai's chakra signature suddenly flare behind him, and as he turned around, he saw three ink beasts heading towards him.

Kakashi drew out three kunai and threw them, each hitting their moving target perfectly, making ink splatter onto the grass as the ink beasts disappeared.

**And I was just looking for him… **Kakashi thought, as he evaded an ink snake that was slithering towards him at a remarkable speed.

"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" Kakashi flew through the hand seals, producing a rather huge fireball, heading in Sai's way.

Evading the fireball with ease, Sai landed back on the ground only to realize that Kakashi was no longer in sight.

**Where is he? **Sai looked behind him, above him, and to the right and left. Realization hit him as it occurred to him the only place Kakashi would be. Below him.

Sai quickly set his scroll down and summoned an ink bird, holding on to its leg.

However, before he could get high enough to evade Kakashi, said jounin's hand shot out from the ground, grabbing hold of Sai's ankle, and pulling him down.

In a last ditch to avoid being trapped in the earth like 'duck-butt', his nickname for Sasuke, Sai drew out his tanto, and stabbed it into the trunk of a tree, holding on to the tanto using the sheer strength of his more dominant arm, and instead pulled Kakashi out of the earth.

It was confirmed now. Sai was no genin, Kakashi was sure of it.

Standing up, Kakashi patted himself down, and faced Sai.

"Who are you, exactly?" The question was asked.

* * *

**(A/N:) Cliffhanger! Really sorry for updating this chapter so late I was overseas these two weeks, forgive me, ne? **

– **Sai refers to Kakashi as 'sempai' instead of 'sensei' as he is not technically genin, and Kakashi was once an ANBU too.**


	5. V: Explanation & Kakashi's Surprise

Replies to Reviews:

**Lobos506**: **Hi there! Thanks for leaving a review and no worries, I'll be sure to finish this story ;) **

* * *

**Disclaimer: Naruto will never, ever be mine…**

* * *

**Sasuke: At least we got rid of them…**

**Sakura: Yeah…Or I'll die from an overdose of youthfulness…..**

**Naruto: But that's awesome! **

**Sakura: Are you mad or what, Naruto! (Punches Naruto)**

**Sasuke: Hn. Once a dobe, always a dobe.**

**Naruto: What didya say, teme!**

**Sasuke: Hard of hearing? Dobe.**

**Naruto: Teme!**

**Sasuke: Dobe.**

**Sakura: Cut it out you two! We need to start the chapter! (Punches the both of them on their head)**

**Sasuke: Ahh… How I miss your fan girl days… I was kidding.**

**Sakura: You better be. (Cracks knuckles) Or you'll end up in the hospital.**

**All: Please read and review!**

* * *

Chapter Six

Normal

"Talking"

**Thoughts/Inner**

* * *

_Last chapter…_

_It was confirmed now. Sai was no genin, Kakashi was sure of it._

_Standing up, Kakashi patted himself down, and faced Sai._

"_Who are you, exactly?" The question was asked._

* * *

Now…

Sai tilted his head, his signature fake smile plastered on.

"Now's not the time for this, Kakashi-senpai." At this moment, the three other members of Team Seven were creeping up on Kakashi, and they would have gotten the bells if not for Naruto, who stepped on a twig and warned Kakashi of their location.

Kakashi instantly moved from the spot he was standing before, running quickly into the dense trees, only to have Sakura and Sasuke following closely behind, the former aiming a chakra-infused punch at him.

He quickly moved to the side with a step, causing Sakura to punch and shatter the tree in front of him instead.

**What the- That… That strength…** Kakashi seemed shocked momentarily from the narrow escape from Sakura's punch.

Kakashi could tell that Sakura had infused that punch with her chakra, a feat that even most jounin couldn't complete.

Thanks to his nimble mind, Kakashi had put two and two together, and concluded that Sakura was also no genin, given her speed and the feat that was impossible for mere genin to have.

**Just what on earth is going on?** He wondered, evading yet another punch that broke the tree beside him.

By now, Sai had also caught up with Kakashi on his ink summon, along with Naruto whose speed was considerably slower than the others, and in awe of his special ability to summon creatures made up of ink.

The team coordinated with each other perfectly, keeping Kakashi very busy dodging a punch here, and a kick there, and they had very nearly gotten the bells quite a few times.

**At this rate, I might be forced to use my Sharingan soon… But this team has understood the concept of teamwork and the purpose of this test…**

Just then, the alarm clock for noon rang, signaling the end of the test, and an immense relief for Kakashi.

When they all assembled back at the memorial stone, where Kakashi had announced the beginning of the test earlier that morning, and Team Seven was given lunch.

"Well done, all of you. I'm pleased to say that all of you have grasped the concept behind this test, and carried out the purpose of teamwork out wonderfully with a good plan, therefore, all of you passed the test!" Kakashi announced with a smile.

"It was nothing really, Kakashi-sensei." Sakura said, remembering how they had formed up the plan.

* * *

Flashback

The four had pondered over plans that were suited to the best of their abilities, Sai and Sasuke being that of speed, and Sakura for her intelligence and strength, Naruto for his stamina.

After many plans devised and aborted, Team Seven had finally decided on a decoy plan.

Sai was to be the decoy and distract Kakashi, while Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke would sneak up on Kakashi from behind him, and try to steal the bells.

If the plan did not work, saying if Kakashi-sensei escaped from them, they still had another back-up plan, Sakura and Sasuke would then chase after Kakashi-sensei, and slow him down, letting Sai carry Naruto to the vicinity and then the team would attack Kakashi together.

Flashback End

* * *

After sharing with Kakashi-sensei how they had conjured up strategies and plans to defeat them, the former seemed to be in awe of Sakura's intelligence and how well this team could cooperate with each other on the field, although there were many arguments and fights among them.

Naruto however, at this moment, had caught sight of the names on the memorial stone, and asked Kakashi about it, once Sakura finished with her recount.

"Naruto, they are a special kind of hero, K.I.A." Kakashi said in reply, masking his very obvious sadness in his voice.

"Then….. I want to be part of them, -ttebayo!" Naruto shouted with enthusiasm, and it was obvious to the others that he did not know exactly what that meant.

"Naruto, K.I.A means killed in action… And I don't want you to be part of them, ever…" Sakura trailed off, as tears started to fall.

The memorial stone reminded her of what had happened in the future, the previous future.

"Sa-Sakura-chan… Then I promise never to be a part of them! Believe it!" Naruto said with such determination, that Sakura wiped away her tears and gave a small smile.

Sasuke just shot her a weird look, one that combined of thoughtfulness and curiosity.

Turning to Sai and Sakura, Kakashi said to them, "Meet me at the dango shop on the other side of the village after you finish your lunch. I need to talk to the both of you. Personally." He then waved goodbye to Sasuke and Naruto, before disappearing in a poof of smoke.

"Sakura-chan, Sai-teme, what did Kakashi-sensei want to talk to you two about?"

Sakura just shrugged, even though she had a good idea why Kakashi wanted to talk to the both of them, she wasn't about to tell that to Naruto, who was simply a loud mouth.

Both of them finished their lunches after Sasuke, who was standing at one side in deep thought, and proceeded to set off, before Sasuke caught hold of Sakura's arm and asked her the question that had been lingering in his mind for quite a while already.

"Sakura, who did you lose?" He asked quietly.

"What does it matter to you anyway? It was all your fault in the first place!" Sakura yelled out in a moment of emotional fit, and instantly regretted it, after seeing Sasuke's puzzled face and realizing that she had revealed too much.

When she made attempts to leave, Sasuke just kept an iron-like grip on her arm, barring her from leaving.

"It was my fault? Sakura, I have no idea what you're talking about right now-" Sasuke stopped abruptly, eyeing her, and her reaction.

In a calm voice he asked, "You're not Sakura, aren't you? The Sakura whom I knew was never this good at taijutsu and would have been screaming with delight at this moment, since I'm touching her. So, spit it out. Who are you?"

Sakura braced herself, and retorted back at Sasuke. "What makes you think that you actually know me? And about the fan girl issue, I gave up being your fan girl since I knew you would never return my attention anyway. And that's that."

Sakura slipped her arm out of Sasuke's grasp, and walked off with Sai to find Kakashi-sensei, or sempai in Sai's case, leaving behind a dumbfounded Sasuke.

Sakura made a stop at a book shop, and made Sai wait outside for her, before she appeared again with a bag in hand. After which, they set off in search of Kakashi.

* * *

-At the dango shop-

Sai and Sakura sat across from Kakashi, each having a cup of green tea in front of them.

"Okay, let's get this started, tell me what and why exactly do you two possess such abilities, and also what are you doing in a genin team." Kakashi stated sternly.

"We told Hokage-sama already about this, and after hearing our account, Kakashi-sensei, if you still do not believe us, we could go and confirm it with the Hokage." Sakura stated firmly, before recounting the events that had happened in the previous future, leading up till now.

* * *

A while later…

"Sakura, Sai, I do have to say, that I believe you two. After all you are my students now." Kakashi's lone visible eye crinkled.

Sakura broke into a smile, while Sai maintained his usual fake smile.

"However, I would have to say that I will be keeping tabs on you two, just for safety." He continued.

Sakura took no offence to this and instead, brought out a book, which made Kakashi's eye light up.

"Tha-That's the….the limited edition Icha Icha Paradise book!"

"It's for you…" Sakura started, but snatched the book away as Kakashi tried to take it. "However, though, I have a condition." Sakura smiled a sly smile.

In one of the training grounds…

"Say cheese, Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura snapped a photo of her sensei without a mask, feeling extremely pleased with herself.

"I never wanted to do this… But for Icha Icha Paradise, I will sacrifice myself!"

Sakura rolled her eyes at her sensei, who was being very silly at the moment, while Sai just stood by, feeling a little bemused.

"Well, here you go, Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura handed the precious book to Kakashi, who took it and immediately disappeared, presumably off somewhere to read his book.

"What are you going to do with that, Hag?" Sai questioned Sakura.

"Well… You'll know tomorrow….." Sakura gave an evil smile, inwardly rubbing her hands in glee.

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The next morning…

Kakashi walked through the village, feeling that the atmosphere today was very odd indeed.

He noticed that girls who caught sight of him were blushing and giggling, and there were even a few who latched onto his arm, refusing to let go of him. Therefore, he was force to endure it, until more and more of them came, surrounding him.

Kakashi could not help but exclaim at this point of time, not quite understanding what was going on.

One of the girls handed him a newspaper, and he took it, feeling mystified.

When he saw the headlines though, he figured everything out instantly. There was a picture of him without his mask, no doubt taken yesterday. There could only be one culprit that could have done this.

"SAKURA!"

Meanwhile, two figures were standing not so far away from the commotion, the taller of the duo holding a newspaper and smirking a little.

"So that's what you were planning, Hag." Sai said, bemused.

"Might as well give it a go, consider it revenge on him from being late all the time." Sakura replied, with a wide smirk on her face, the first time one had been seen, for such a long time.

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**(A/N:) This is kind of short though, since the previous one was so long… Anyways, it'll be a double update! So check out the next chappie~ ^^**


	6. VI: Mission To Wave!

**Disclaimer: I do not and never will own Naruto**

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**So… Here I am with another chapter! Please read and enjoy!**

**Naruto: Yay! Double update! **

**Sasuke: Hn. What a touching thing, double updates...**

**Author: Was that sarcasm I hear? Oh never mind, you****'re just jealous that you're not the main character here.**

**Sasuke: Hn. *Mutters under breath***

**Author: What was that, my "dearest" Sasuke-kun? **

**Sasuke: *shudders* Nothing. (Runs to Itachi) Nii-san hide me!**

**Author: Che. I'm starting the chapter now. No time to bother about you. XP Please R&R!**

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Chapter Seven: Mission To Wave!

Normal

"Talking"

**Thoughts**

* * *

"Now then, Kakashi's team seven, the missions available are, babysitting the councilman's boy, lawn mowing for a woman, helping dig up potatoes…" As the Sandaime got further and further down the red in Naruto's face was getting darker and darker, until the boy nearly had steam coming from his ears.

"ARGHHHH! NO! None of those! All of them! I want to do something where I can actually move, something more exciting! I'm a Summoner! Can't we do something else?" As Naruto threw his small tantrum Sasuke was silently agreeing with him.

**He has a point…**

The raven-haired avenger had the same feeling for a long time, only that he didn't protest to being assigned to D-rank missions. He wasn't going to get any better unless he was challenged by the higher rank missions, because the D-rank missions were simply just a joke.

**Same old Naruto… **

Sakura thought with a small smile, while Sai just gave a blank look, having been gently warned- scratch that, more like fatally threatened if he plastered on his fake smile.

**I knew he was going to do this soon… Naruto's so much like him…**

That was the only thought Kakashi had running through his mind as his charge ranted.

"Naruto!" Iruka burst out of his seat beside the Sandaime. "You're still a genin! You have to stick to the simple duties when you start out and work your way up to the harder missions." After the initial loud outburst his voice had softened somewhat but there was still a hard edge as he explained it. However, the message wasn't getting across. Off to one side the Sandaime sighed and shook his head, not expressing his true frustration.

The Sandaime felt the deep urge within him to bang the table in frustration, though he kept a calm façade in front of the genin team, and their jounin sensei, Kakashi.

The only reason why he was doing this was because of the reason that Kakashi would never let him live said action that was being constraint above down, seeing that the silver haired jounin had been hanging out with a certain purple haired sadist woman this past few months, and the Sandaime had learnt a lesson previously from it, seeing that Kakashi had not let the Sandaime forget about the incident that happened when they were observing the situation of the academy on the graduation day.

Yep, the Sandaime really slammed his head onto his desk in total shock in front of all the jounin senseis, when Sasuke and Naruto kissed.

Even though a month had passed since that particular incident, Kakashi had taken every opportunity to remind him of it whenever the two met, even in the hallways, causing the Sandaime much embarrassment indeed.

And he sure did not want that to happen again, especially since now both Iruka AND Kakashi were here.

The reason was that even though Iruka often lectured Naruto for his pranks and mischievous deeds, he himself was like an older version of Naruto, only more toned-down, as compared to a certain silver-haired jounin.

But when the two got together, it was like a never-ending hell of embarrassment that lay in wait for the poor Sandaime, every time either one of them saw him, or heaven forbid it, both of them.

At least Anko isn't here, though… The Sandaime shuddered unconsciously at the thought if the three of them were here together, the havoc would probably be penned down in history forever.

Realizing that he was straying further and further away from his main point of objective (so am I, actually :P), the Sandaime quickly willed himself to turn his attention to the hyper active blond ninja. Said blond ninja was currently discussing lunch of all things at this very moment, not caring for what the Sandaime had been trying to explain to him for the past half-hour without getting interrupted.

"Appologise to the Hokage!" Iruka's rant on Naruto's disrespectfulness came to an end and Naruto huffed.

"Fine…" He grumbled. "Sorry for being disrespectful old man, but I am not the troublemaker you seem to think I am!" With that he turned around and sat on the floor with a disgruntled pout.

**I'm going to live through hell later for this… **Kakashi sighed mentally to himself.

Iruka wore a slightly stunned look as he stared down at the young blonde who still managed to surprise him, and then he smiled.

**Fine, I surrender…** The Sandaime thought tiredly to himself.

"Okay… If you want it that much…" the rest of team Seven looked at him sharply as he spoke and the smile that was spreading across Naruto's face clearly indicated that he knew he had won.

"I'll give you a C-Rank mission." Still seated on the wooden floor of the mission center Naruto bounced and cheered loudly while behind him Kakashi was nearly in a state of shock wondering why the hell the Sandaime had given into Naruto so easily.

"It's a protection mission of a certain individual." He explained and Naruto burst into loud speculation. "…calm down, I'm about to introduce him." Naruto did just that, leaping to his feet and watching the doorway as Sarutobi called out.

"Tazuna, will you come in here?" A hand creped around the door and a man walked into the room.

"What's this? They're all a bunch of super brats." The man took a swig of alcohol from the Sake bottle that hung loosely from one hand and leaned against the doorframe. "Especially the stupid looking short one in the middle! Are you really a Ninja?" Naruto looked from side to side.

"Did he mean Sakura?" He asked loudly and most of the occupants of the room sweat dropped as Sakura and Sasuke looked down at him, moving closer to him to show that he was the only short one, while Sai remained stationary, bemused by the scene before him.

**I would have to record this down later…** Sai made a mental note to himself to do so.

Naruto looked back at Tazuna with a twitching deadpan expression before he exploded!

"I'LL KILL YOU OLD MAN!" He balled his fists and leapt at the drunken old man in a rage but Kakashi caught the back off his jacket and easily picked him up so that he was kicking at thin air.

"Hey! You shouldn't be trying to kill the person you're supposed to protect! Baka!" But Naruto wasn't really listening. Kakashi sighed and turned to the other three members of team seven.

"We'll meet at the east gate in half an hour. You have until then to prepare." Sakura and Sasuke nodded and left before Tazuna wandered off, leaving Kakashi with the hardest task of all.

Calming down Naruto.

**I get you back for this… Oh just you wait…**

An evil grin crept up on Kakashi's face, showing through his mask, as he thought of revenge on a certain pair of ANBU nins.

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Half An Hour Later…

Walking through the gigantic gates of Konoha Naruto was nearly bouncing with enthusiasm.

"ALRIGHT! LET'S GO!" The blonde gave a loud cheer, zipping from one side of the path to the other in an effort to see everything at once. Standing toward the back of the group, the rest of Team Seven sweat dropped.

**This brat… is a genin? **Tazuna thought incredulously, as he observed the orange ninja energetically moving around.

**Hn. As expected from a dobe like him.**

**NARUTOOOOOO! **Inner Sakura cracked her knuckles, while she maintained a cool face on the exterior.

When Naruto zoomed by in front of her once more, Sakura grabbed a hold of Naruto by his collar, drawing him close to her. Naruto instantly blushed, much aware of how close he was to Sakura.

**Maybe she finally realizes that I'm better than that teme! Is she… Is she going to kiss me?**

Naruto could feel his heart rapidly beating as Sakura drew closer and closer to his face, and he closed his eyes, anticipating the kiss.

Instead of that, Sakura leaned into his ear, and whispered in a low volume, low enough that only Naruto and Sai could hear her.

"Try that once more, and I'll make sure that the part that never sees the daylight will hurt like hell." Sakura drew away with a sweet smile on her face that stated blandly as day "Mess with me and the next one will be you."

Kakashi, who had saw the entire scene with absolute clarity, gulped in slight fear.

**That girl sure is… terrifying, though not as much as Anko… Looks like I have to think twice about that revenge I was going to take…**

The copy-nin frowned, displeased at the thought of not being able to take his revenge.

"Well, seeing that Dickless has none of the part where you mentioned, Ugly, it probably won't hurt." Sai just had to add in his two-cents.

**For the love of god, not again… Why must heaven be so cruel to me? **Kakashi face palmed, earning a surprised look from Tazuna, who was unaware of what was going to happen next, while Sakura smirked evilly.

**Face palm while you still can…Kakashi-sensei… There's still more to come…**

* * *

**Why must I have to put up with this dobe and this impersonator…?**

Sasukegroaned inwardly, while maintaining a cool and uncaring face on the outside, mentally making a note to bring ear plugs when he would be out on a mission with this dobe.

"What did you say, Sai-teme!" The expected reply burst forth from the loudmouth ninja.

"Hard of hearing, dobe?" Sasuke felt compelled to add in a comment or two. He would never pass up a chance to insult "his" dead-last.

And thus, the cycle began once more.

Naruto, not wanting to back down and admit that Sasuke and Sai, who had defeated the Demon Brothers with surprising ease while he just stood there frozen, was high on his guard, and also twice as obnoxious and noisy as before.

"There! I hear something!" Naruto yelled out, throwing the kunai towards the bush where he had heard a sound.

When the bush was pulled apart, it revealed a snow-white bunny half scared to death by the kunai that had almost hit its head.

"NARUTO YOU BAKA!" Sakura instantly punched him, making him fly upwards and hit the ground with a heavy thud on his bottom.

That was when both Sakura and Sai sensed something that made their eyes widen.

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**Sasuke: Wow. A cliffhanger. I hate them as much as I hate you *mumbles about stupid authors***

**Author: I'm feeling partially homicidal today, so you better… *cracks knuckles***

**Sasuke: Understood. Please review! (Gulps)**


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